Gunsmithing Making a wood stock with aluminum chassis

[Hazarmaveth]

Greetings, this is my first post here at this excellent and informative forum.

I'm just getting in to precision shooting, and I've got a Savage Mark II FV-SR on the way that's going to need a better stock. Now, I'm a woodworker; I've made a number of guitars, drums, and the like as well as a wood stock for the 22 that the FV-SR is replacing. So I'm not about to buy something like a Boyds that I could have had fun making.

The trouble with wood for a stock as I see it is that solid wood isn't totally dimensionally stable, meaning it expands unevenly and warps when the temperature and humidity changes. I can't see that being good for accuracy. Laminate does that less, but I don't want to work with laminate.

What I've been thinking about is putting a big aluminum block under the receiver, and bed the action into that. Kind of like an AICS, except with wood instead of composite and no aluminum in the forend.

It's probably a bit overkill for a 22lr, but it would also be good practice for the 338 Edge build I'm saving up for.

Any reasons why this shouldn't work?

 

[Eagle1899]

Re: Making a wood stock with aluminum chassis

Thompson Center does that on the Icon series. They shoot very well.

 

[Ratbert]

Re: Making a wood stock with aluminum chassis

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/sid=52776...0004039_d_11484

Only thing I'd point out is that wood might end up weighing more.

 

[Hazarmaveth]

Re: Making a wood stock with aluminum chassis

I figured it would have been done before. Thanks for the information.

Ratbert, that would depend on what kind of wood I end up using, but wood generally has a better stiffness to weight ratio than almost anything short of very high-quality carbon fiber. It's possible to make a wood stock very light if you shape it right and choose the right material. The other stock I made out of solid Spanish Cedar may be a little too light.